The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for activating a system in response to impact and more particularly concerns an apparatus for sensing impact of a movable mass and responding thereto. This invention will be specifically disclosed in connection with an aircraft emergency system which assists search crews locating a fallen aircraft. In the disclosed embodiment, a visual balloon is filled with a lighter than air gas and rises several hundred feet above the crash sight to visually aid in locating the crash sight in response to impact of the aircraft.
It is an unfortunate fact that many aircrafts crash into the ground or water. When such occurs, the misfortune is often compounded by the inability of a search crew to specifically locate the fallen aircraft. This is particularly true in a case of small aircraft which are relatively small physically and which have often traveled over unrecorded air routes. One instance in which search crews have difficulty locating fallen aircraft is when the aircraft crashes in a heavily wooded area. Trees surrounding the fallen aircraft obscure it from conspicuous view of a search aircraft with the result that observers in the search aircraft are unable to locate the fallen aircraft. This is frequently true even when the fallen aircraft has been directly beneath the search aircraft. When occupants of a fallen aircraft are in need of emergency medical care, time is commonly of the essence. In such circumstances, time delays in locating a fallen aircraft may involve life or death situations, and needless time delays may result in needless deaths.
Another instance in which a fallen aircraft or the occupants thereof are difficult to locate is when the aircraft crashes into a large body of water such as a lake or ocean. Many times the aircraft will sink into the water before a search aircraft locates the crash sight. Many times these aircraft are permanently lost. Even when the surviving occupants of an aircraft which has fallen into a large body of water use life rafts and remain atop the water, the close physical proximity of the life raft to the water surface often results in the inability of the search crew to visually distinguish survivors or their life rafts from the water surface. Similar to the instance in which the fallen aircraft is within a heavily wooded area, it is not uncommon for observers in a search aircraft to fail to visually detect survivors or their lift rafts on the surface of a body of water, even when the search aircraft is in close proximity to the survivors.
The present invention greatly assists observers of a search aircraft in overcoming their visual shortcomings and in locating fallen aircraft by supplying an expanded balloon above the crash sight. The expanded balloon is preferably elevated to a heighth which is sufficient to clear the tree lines in wooded areas and which is clearly and visually distinguishable by an observer in a search aircraft. The use of an elevated balloon permits observers in a search aircraft to readiy spot the craft's crash location over the horizon and to expedite rescue operations. In the case of an aircraft that has crashed into a large body of water, the pressurized balloon of the embodiment specifically illustrated herein would enable location and possible retrieval of otherwise lost aircraft.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which activates a system in response to impact.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus to release pressurized contents of a source of compressed fluid in response to impact.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which is responsive to a crash of a moving vehicle.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an emergency crash system for an aircraft to assist in locating that aircraft in a crash situation.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an inflatable balloon which inflates and rises above an aircraft to indicate location in response to impact of the aircraft.